KHUTAB XI: 3. GHADĪR (THE POND OF) KHUMM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE (2)
3. GHADĪR (THE POND OF) KHUMM AND
ITS SIGNIFICANCE (2)
3. According to Sunni
traditionists, such as al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Ṭabrānī, al-Nasā’ī,
and many others, the verse
الْيَوْمَ
أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ
لَكُمُ
الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا ...(المائدة:3)
Today I
have perfected your religion and completed
my
favour upon you, and I was satisfied that Islam
be your
religion) (Q. 5:3))
was revealed at
‘Arafah, and not at Ghadīr Khumm. When this verse was revealed on the evening
day of ‘Arafah (9th of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah) ‘Umar cried. When the Prophet asked him
what made him cry he said that as the religion of Islam was being perfected for
them, and as nothing is perfect but bound to deteriorate. The Prophet confirmed
it, as he said:
بَدَأَ الإِسْلاَمُ غَرِيبًا وَسَيَعُودُ
كَمَا بَدَأَ غَرِيبًا فَطُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ (رواه مسلم(
. (Reported
by Muslim)
Islam was strange in its beginning and
will return
strange
like in its beginning. Therefore, good news
for the
strangers (Reported by Muslim)
It was narrated by Ṭāriq ibn Shihāb
that the Jews said to ‘Umar r.a.,
“By
Allah! There is a verse read by all of you (Muslims),
and had
it been revealed to us, we would have taken
that day it was revealed a day of celebration.”
‘Umar
r.a. said, “By Allah I know when and where
this
verse was revealed and where the Messenger of
Allah
was at that time. It was the Friday evening of
‘Arafah,
andI was at ‘Arafah, by Allah”
(Reported
by al-Bukhārī, Muslim,
al-Tirmidhī,
and al-Nasā’ī)[1]
Asmā’ bint ‘Umays said:
I was
performing the pilgrimage with the Messenger
of
Allah s.a.w. at the pilgrimage. While we were walking suddenly Gabriel appeared
to him on his riding she-camel;
and as
she could not bear the heaviness of the (verses of
the) Qur’ān, she knelt down; so, I came to him
and covered
him with the outer garment which was with me.[2]
4. Had the succession been a divine
decree, Ali would not have said the following statements:
a. In his speech in Nahj al-Balāghah 1/182, no. 92 ‘Ali said:
Leave
me alone and ask other people [for leadership],
as we
are facing a case which has various manifestations
and
complexions, which hearts cannot bear and reason
cannot
accept [namely, complicated]… and if you leave
me, as
I am like any of you, I might be the one who
listen
and obey the most among you to whom you
have
chosen a ruler. For me, being a vizier of
b. In his speech in Nahj al-Balāghah 2/184, no. 205
‘Ali also said:
By
Allah, I have neither desire to be a caliph,
nor
skill for ruling, but you are appealing to
me for
it and imposing it on me.[4]
c. In his speech in Nahj al-Balāghah
(“Peack of Eloquence”) no. 205 ‘Ali also
said:
In fact, people who
pledged allegiance to me are those
who
have pledged allegiance to Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and
‘Uthmān
on the [same] condition, so people who are
present
have no choice, and those who are absent have
no
objection; rather, it is shūrá (mutual consultation) for
the
muhajirin (emigrants) and anṣār (people of Madinah).
If they
agreed on a man and called him an imām, this
would
be pleasing Allah, and if a man came out of their
order
with impeachment or innovation, they would bring
him
back, and if he rejected they would fight him for
his
following other than the way of the believers, and
Allah would keep him in the path he has chosen.[5]
Here ‘Ali’s expression of “following
other than the way of the believers, and Allah would keep him in the path he
has chosen” he was quoting the following Qur’ānic verse:
مَنْ
يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ
سَبِيلِ
الْمُؤْمِنِينَنُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّى وَنُصْلِهِ
جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا (النساء:115)
And whoever contradicts
and opposes
the
Messenger (Muhammad) after the
right
path has been shown clearly to him,
and
follows other than the believers’ way,
We
shall keep him in the path he has
chosen,
and burn him in Hell – what
an evil
destination! (Q. 4:115)
Moreover,
it was reported that he and his two sons al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn (r.a.) had paid
allegiance to Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān. They would have violated the divine
decree had the leadership been divinely decreed for them, unless they were
doing what is called taqiyyah, prudence, namely, dissimilation of one’s
religion or faith under duress or in the face of threatening damage. This also
would be unlikely for a brave and upright man like ‘Ali to conceal the truth
about his right for leadership based on divine decree.
However,
the genuineness of Nahj al-Balāghah by many Muslim scholars as the
speeches of ‘Ali selected and collected by al-Sharīf Muhammad al-Raḍī
(359-406/970-1016), or his elder brother ‘Ali al-Murtaḍā (355-426/966-1036) was
doubted and many of them were considered forgery.[6]
They are unlike the ḥadīths of the Prophet where we can trace who said
what and from whom until the report reached the collectors of the ḥadīths,
such as al-Bukhārī and Muslim. The character of each narrator of the report was
evaluated to see whether he was trustworthy, pious and had enough strong
memory, or not. The chain of narrators and transmitters is called isnād,
and evaluating the character of each of them is called al-jarḥ wa l’ta‘dīl
(lit. “injuring and straightening”). In modern time we have a record called
Wo’s Who where the identity of persons in it are mentioned. In Nahj al-Balāghah
we do not have isnād.
Dr. Ṣabrī
Ibrāhīm al-Sayyid, the Emeritus Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at
Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, in his verification on the Nahj
al-Balāghah gives us some of his findings as follows: Many of the scholars
of the 6th century of Hijrah thought that most of the contents of Nahj
al-Balāghah were not originated from ‘Ali, but were composed by a group of
eloquent Shī‘īs , among whom was al-Sayyid al-Raḍī. Dr. Ṣabrī did not decide the genuineness or
falsehood of the contents of the book, but he analysed them, and found that some
parts of them were originated from Greek orators and others from Muslim
scholars. He made his decision on 20% of them, and said that they had been
composed by al-Sharīf al-Raḍī himself, and not his brother ‘Ali al-Murtaḍā.
Other
irregularities of Nahj al-Balāghah are: too many and too long speeches;
too many sayings and speeches from reliable sources attributed to other than
‘Ali, but attributed to him by the writer of Nahj al-Balāghah;
containing improper statements attributed to Ali about the caliphs before him;
containing the news of the unseen, the distant future, such as the case of al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf
al-Thaqafī, the Zinj civil strife, and the Tatar invasion; the extensive use of
rhymed prose in it; the use of elegant style in which literary art appeared
which was among the embellishment and decoration of the ‘Abbasī period; the
existence in it philosophical expressions and theological essays unknown by
Muslims except in the 3rd century of the Hijrah when Greek, Persian and Indian
books were translated into Arabic.
5. According to the Shī‘īs after completing his farewell pilgrimage the
Prophet appointed ‘Ali as his successor at Ghadīr Khumm, a watering hole
in the middle of the desert not from the city of Juhfah, approximately 250 km
away from Makkah in the south. We wonder why such an important event, the
appointment of ‘Ali as the Prophet’s successor was not announced at the Mount
of Arafah where the entire Muslim ummah was gathered, so that nobody
would deny or doubt it. After this pilgrimage the pilgrims dispersed and
returned to their respective homes, such as Țā’if, Kūfah and Yemen, whereas the
people of Makkah remained in that city. None of these people went to completely
different and opposite direction towards Ghadīr Khumm in order to listen
to the Prophet’s important sermon. The Prophet had never told them to do so.
Therefore, those who were present with the Prophet at that place were those who
lived in cities in the North of the Arabian Peninsula who were heading towards
Madinah (or passing through/near it) and other places such as Syria. They were
just a handful of Muslims, not a great number of Muslims as claimed by the Shī‘īs
to be over 100,000 people (some said
about 120,000 people). It is said that when the Prophet passed away the number
of Muslims was not even half of it.
This event indicates that the Ghadīr
Khumm episode was not so significant as claimed by the Shī‘īs . When the
Prophet said what he said it was the answer of an issue, of a special case
arising at that time and at that place. This will be dealt with in the next khuṭbah,
in shā Allāh.
(CIVIC, 7 October, 2016)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري) ت. 310 هـ (
تفسير القرطبى) ت. 671 هـ (
تفسير ابن كثير)ت. 774 هـ(
htps://www.al-islam.org/ghadir/incident.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_of_the_pond_of_Khumm
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo- 9780195390155/obo-97801953
http://www.dd-sunnah.net/forum/showthread.php?p
=553768#post55376
https://gift2shias.com/2013/10/24/hadith-of-ghadir-khumm-a-sunni-perspective/
http://www.utm.thaqalayn.org/files/ghadeer.pdf
http://www.discoveringislam.org/ghadir_khumm.htm
source: http://www.utm.thaqalayn.org/files/ghadeer.pdf”
http://www.aqaed.com/faq/4457/
[1] The report runs as follows: عَنْ طَارِقِ بْنِ شِهَابٍ قَالَ قَالَ يَهُودِىٌّ
لِعُمَرَ بْنِ الْخَطَّابِ رَضِىَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ : أَمَا لَوْ عَلَيْنَا مَعْشَرَ
الْيَهُودِ نَزَلَتْ هَذِهِ الآيَةُ (الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ
عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الإِسْلاَمَ دِينًا) نَعْلَمُ الْيَوْمَ الَّذِى
نَزَلَتْ فِيهِ لاَتَّخَذْنَا ذَلِكَ الْيَوْمَ عِيدًا. فَقَالَ عُمَرُ بْنُ الْخَطَّابِ
رَضِىَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ : قَدْ عَلِمْتُ الْمَوْضِعَ الَّذِى نَزَلَتْ فِيهِ وَالْيَوْمَ
وَالسَّاعَةَ نَزَلَتْ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- وَنَحْنُ بِعَرَفَةَ
عَشِيَّةَ جُمُعَةٍ. (رَوَاهُ البخاري ومُسْلِمٌ وَالترمذي والنسائي
[2]فقالت أسماء بنت عُمَيس: حججت مع رسول الله
صلى الله عليه وسلم تلك الحجة، فبينما نحن نسير، إذ تجلّى له جبريل صلى الله عليه وسلم
على الرَّاحلة، فلم تطق الراحلة من ثِقْل ما عليها من القرآن، فبركت، فأتيته فسجَّيت
عليه برداء كان علي (تفسير الطبري)
[3] دعوني والتمسوا غيري، فإنا مستقبلون أمرا له وجوه وألوان، لا تقوم له
القلوب، ولا تثبت عليه العقول ... وإن تركتموني فأنا كأحدكم ، ولعلي أسمعكم وأطوعكم لمن وليتموه أمركم،
وأنا لكم وزيرا خير لكم مني أميرا (نهج البلاغة
1\182, خطبة 92)
[4] والله ما كانت لي في الخلافة رغبة، ولا في الولاية إربة، ولكنكم دعوتموني
إليها وحملتموني عليها (نهج البلاغة 2
\184, خطبة 205
[5]إِنَّهُ بَايَعَنِي القَومُ الَّذِينَ بَايَعُوا
أَبَا بَكرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثمانَ عَلَى مَا بَايَعُوهُم عَلَيهِ، فَلَم يَكُن لِلشَّاهِدِ
أَن يَختَارَ، وَلاَ لِلغَائِبِ أَن يَرُدَّ، وَإنَّمَا الشُّورَى لِلمُهَاجِرِينَ
وَالأَنصَارِ، فَإِنِ اجتَمَعُوا عَلَى رَجُلٍ وَسَمَّوهُ إِمَاماً كَانَ ذلِكَ لِلَّهِ
رِضىً، فَإِن خَرَجَ عَن أَمرِهِم خَارِجٌ بِطَعنٍ أَوبِدعَةٍ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى مَاخَرَجَ
مِنهُ، فَإِن أَبَى قَاتَلُوهُ عَلَى اتِّبَاعِهِ غَيرَ سَبِيلِ المُؤمِنِينَ، وَوَلاَّهُ
اللهُ مَا تَوَلَّى (نهج البلاغة3/ 7 باب كنيته 6
[6] For example, see ابن خلكان : وفيات، 3/313 ط دار الثقافة – بيروت;
الذهبي : ميزان الاعتدال 3/124 ; ابن عماد
الحنبلي : شذرات الذهب 3/257 ; اليافعي : مرآة
الجنان 3/55 ; ابن حجر العسقلاني : لسان الميزان 4/223 ; كرد علي : أمراء البيان 1/571
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